On Your Mark . . .

I occasionally get emails suggesting I toss a photo of myself up on the blog or the premium site, so I'm posting a couple of self-portraits taken during our stay-at-home vacation last week.

In the first I am enjoying the view from the summit of Mt. Moosilauke, which Mrs. BGA and I hiked Friday with That Certain Hanover High Grad. I opted to leave the flip-flops in the backpack and broke out the heavy-duty footwear for the boulder-strewn hike. During our five hours on the mountain That Certain Hanover High Grad regaled us with stories from her "psycho hiking" freshman trip last fall that culminated with a descent to Dartmouth's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge.

The final week before preseason also included a kayaking trip around Lake Morey in nearby Fairlee, Vt. Lake Morey is named for Samuel Morey, who developed the first steamboat in 1792 but saw Robert Fulton grab the glory some years later.

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The always interesting Dartmo.; Buildings of Dartmouth College website repeats something about the Memorial Field west stands reconstruction project I had heard in the past, but with an interesting twist. From the site:

It seems that the replacement supports, made of concrete, were actually cast and have been resting in a field in Vermont, awaiting an improvement in the college budget.

The project recently was restarted.

The "recently was restarted" part is new to me, and I'll be asking around to see if anyone is willing to clarify what that means during this first week of practice. UPDATE: Turns out the "restarted" piece was a little optimistic. It has since been changed.

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Speaking of which, practice begins on Memorial Field Wednesday and once again the first day will see half the team on the field at 2 p.m. and the other half at 3:25.

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Dartmouth's Oct. 1 game against Penn will be the first night game in Dartmouth football history. How big a crowd will it draw? One thing is for certain: It will not break the record for a Dartmouth-Penn game on Memorial Field for one reason. Capacity at the stadium was reduced from 20,416 to 13,000 when Floren Varsity House was built.

Top 5 Memorial Field crowds vs. Penn

17,800 - 1973
17,600 - 1971
17,000 - 1969
14,324 - 1984
12,600 - 1975

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The guess here is that ESPN columnist Rick Reilly will likely find himself scratched off the Christmas card list of Mike Brown '57, former Dartmouth quarterback and owner of the Cincinnati Bengals after writing a column headlined Horrible Bosses: Bengals' Mike Brown.

For a little more objective look at Brown, here is his Wikipedia bio.

Brown completed 34-of-78 passes for 530 yards, two touchdowns and six interceptions as Dartmouth's leading passer in 1956, his senior year. The Big Green went 5-3-1 overall and 4-3 in the Ivy League in its second year under Bob Blackman. Bob Rex served as the Dartmouth captain that fall.

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Be sure to check out the Yale season preview tomorrow on Green Alert premium.